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Monday, December 6, 2010

BBC World News: A Paris Court Has Said Continental Airlines Was "Criminally Responsible" for The Crash of a Concorde Supersonic Jet 10 Years Ago

First Flight of Concorde March, 1969    Getty Images

eMOTION! REPORTS.com Archives: Concorde - A Majestic Bird Returns [?]
http://www.emotionreports.com/briefing_room/concorde_ed.html  Publisher Myron D. Stokes recalls first flight on Concorde and response to news of crash.

Preliminary Accident Report: http://www.emotionreports.com/downloads/pdfs/report2.pdf

Final report from BEA on Concorde accident: http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2000/f-sc000725a/pdf/f-sc000725a.pdf
Also: http://www.emotionreports.com/downloads/pdfs/report.pdf

Related: Boeing Supersonic Transport (SST) Program; Complete Schematics http://www.emotionreports.com/downloads/pdfs/boeing.pdf

Publisher's note:  SPECIAL FOREWORD TO ENGLISH EDITION - This report has been translated and published by the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) to make its reading easier for English-speaking people. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference. (from BEA site;
http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2000/f-sc000725a/htm/f-sc000725a.html )

Employees View Prototype of Anglo-French Concorde Supersonic Airliner 1968
Excerpt from BBC World News America report:

"A Paris court has said Continental Airlines was "criminally responsible" for the crash of a Concorde supersonic jet 10 years ago, and fined it 200,000 euros (£170,000).

It has also been ordered to pay 1m euros to the jet's operator Air France.


A Continental mechanic, John Taylor, was given a 15-month suspended prison sentence over the crash.


Continental has said it will appeal, saying the verdict is "absurd" and "only protects French interests".

Another airline operative, Stanley Ford, and three French officials were cleared.


The Concorde caught fire shortly after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in July 2000, killing 113 people.


The court ruled that the crash was caused by a piece of metal left on the runway after falling from a Continental jet. Investigators said this caused a tyre-burst in the Concorde, which in turn ruptured a fuel tank.


The judge in the case confirmed investigators' findings that titanium debris dropped by a Continental DC-10 onto the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport before the Concorde took off was to blame..."